So you are thinking about mining Ecoins

The first thing you need to decide is what Ecoin to mine. You will want to understand how accepted the Ecoin is as a currency, how hard it is to mine and who is leading the evolution of the Ecoin. Some Ecoins grow and some Ecoins fail. A successful Ecoin has greater demand than supply, this is often reflected by the value of the Ecoin. As an Ecoin becomes more valuable it also tends to become harder to mine. The computing required to find the Ecoin becomes more expensive and more powerful. For example, right now only ASIC computers (computers with custom circuits for mining) will be successful mining for Bitcoin. GPU (graphic cards) processing based computers are still successful for other Ecoin mining like Litecoins and Feathercoins. A great shortcut to determine the best Ecoin to mine is to look at the market cap of the Ecoin, the relative difficulty to mine the Ecoin, and the community around the Ecoin.

The market cap of the Ecoin

The market cap of the Ecoin is how much all the Ecoins in existence are worth (does not include undiscovered Ecoins). This is important because as you will find out soon enough there are many Ecoin types to choose. Picking an Ecoin with a reasonable market cap vs. other Ecoins is a quick way to get an idea of value and acceptance. Also look at the percentage of the Ecoin that has been discovered to get an idea of the maturity of the market. These are two factors that help to predict which Ecoins are going to grow and which Ecoins are going to perish.

Relative difficulty to mine the coin

The easier it is to mine the Ecoin, the more of it will find with your computer equipment. Generally, the easier it is to find the Ecoin, the less computers are looking for it. As demand for the coin grows, the mining difficulty increases and so does the market cap. Also keep in mind, the computer that youa re going to use to mine for eht coin. if you have a MONSTER system you can go after slightly more mature and valuable Ecoins. If you are using a typical desktop, it is probably best to Ecoin that is easiest to mine. Balancing an Ecoin’s market cap and mining difficulty will help you pick the best coin to mine for you.

Ecoin community around the Ecoin

Taking a look at the community around the Ecoin is sort of like getting to know the people who are building a company. Most open source Ecoin projects are built and maintained by a core community of developers, enthusiasts and businesses. Getting to know the team may help you gauge the strength of the coin and its potential for growth.

Lastly, when you are calculating the cost of mining vs. the reward, don’t forget about your power costs. When you are mining, your computers are basically working full force, full time. This costs power which is a real cost for mining.